Oil spill washes into Louisiana marshes; MDEQ head spots oil

View full size(Press-Register/Harlan Kirgan)Fiery trails of decomposing oil surrounded the Deepwater Horizon oil spill site in the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday. William Walker, executive director of the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources, was with a group of reporters and photographers aboard a National Guard helicopter on a flyover of the spill site about 100 miles south of Mississippi. An oil sheen was seen about 69 miles south of Gulflport on the flight and it was the closest visible evidence of oil to the state's coast. Oil well owner BP PLC said Thursday that more oil than was first estimated is gushing into the Gulf of Mexico at the same time the company was ordered to use a less-toxic form of chemical dispersant.

Meanwhile, the Associated Press reported that gooey, rust-colored oil washed into the marshes at the mouth of the Mississippi River and the wetlands of Louisiana for the first time.

According to the AP, up until now only tar balls and a sheen of oil had come ashore. But on Wednesday, chocolate brown and vivid orange globs, sheets and ribbons of foul-smelling oil the consistency of latex paint began coating the reeds and grasses of Louisiana's wetlands, home to rare birds, mammals and a rich variety of marine life.

To see updated projection maps related to the oil spill
in the Gulf, visit the Deepwater
Horizon Response Web site established by government officials.

How
to help: Volunteers eager to help cope with the spill and
lessen its impact on the Gulf Coast environment and economy.

HOW YOU CAN HELP will appear daily in The MIssissippi Press until there is no longer a need for volunteers in response to the oil spill disaster. If you have suggestions for a story, or if you belong to an organization in need of such help, please call Mississippi Press Editor Gareth Clary at 228-934-1429 or email him at gclary@themississippipress.com.

William Walker, director of the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, toured Mississippi waters in a National Guard helicopter on Thursday, and said he spotted oil less than 70 miles south of Gulfport.

The director flew about 100 miles over the sheen of oil. "It's still leaking fresh product," he said. "As long as that happens, we don't have a finite problem to get our arm around."

Mississippi's coast is fortified by boom, Walker said, but secondary boom, including absorbent boom, may have to be laid "to better protect areas."

Walker said water sample testing also is being done at the barrier islands.

Another edge of crude this week reached the powerful Loop Current, which could take the slick to Florida and beyond, according to scientists.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported this week that a small portion of the slick had entered the current, a stream of faster-moving water that circulates through the Gulf before bending around Florida and up the Atlantic coast.

NOAA administrator Dr. Jane Lubchenco said Thursday in a teleconference with reporters that "this oil spill is unprecedented and dynamic," but the "bulk of the oil is well within the Gulf."

Oil began spewing into the Gulf after an explosion a month ago on the offshore drilling rig Deepwater Horizon. The explosion killed 11 people.

BP was combating the spill with an approved dispersant, but in "unprecedented volumes" and underwater -- ways in which the dispersant has never been used before, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Lubchenco said dispersants work like detergents, breaking up the oil into droplets and enabling the oil to degrade faster. Yet "trying to mitigate the spill is a question of trade-off," she told the reporters. "The EPA and its partners ... have become increasingly concerned about the specific dispersants being used."

Under the agency's order, BP had to identify at least one approved dispersant product that is effective, available in large quantities and meets specified toxicity limits. Then, according to the agency, the company must begin using only the approved alternative, after getting EPA approval.

Federal officials also asked BP on Thursday to make public all detailed information about the spill, including the measurements of the leak.

Up until Thursday, BP and the Coast Guard had been saying 210,000 gallons of oil per day were flowing into the Gulf. Some scientists have been saying for days that the rate is much higher.

BP did not adopt a specific rate as of Thursday, saying only that it's more than first thought.

A video stream was uploaded to the website of the House Select Committee on Energy Independent and Global Warming, where oil gushing from the blown-out well can be seen.

Tests conducted Thursday to choke off the oil's flow gave crews hope that by Sunday they can start the "top kill," in which heavy mud will be pumped into the well's equipment, then sealing it with cement.

According to the AP, the technique has been used before to halt gushing oil above ground, but it has never been used 5,000 feet below the surface.

In Mobile and Baldwin counties, officials worked to prevent boom, used across the coast to block the oil slick's path, from being vandalized.

Authorities reported that vandalism has been an isolated but perplexing problem in some coastal communities.

Fairhope, Grand Bay and Spanish Fort have reported damaged or stolen boom, according to authorities.

One Baldwin County community suffered a different problem this week. On Wednesday evening, when the winds died down and a light fog settled over southernmost Baldwin County, Orange Beach residents got a strong whiff of a petroleum-like scent.

Standing outdoors, Orange Beach City Councilman Brett Holk said, the stench became akin to being in tight quarters with a can of WD-40.

By Thursday morning, though, the winds had changed, and the odor was no longer discernable.